Date: Fri, 28 Jul 2000 17:56:02 +0100
To: Jeff Elman <elman@crl.ucsd.edu>
From: Richard M Young <r.m.young@herts.ac.uk>
Subject: Signed letter to Chair, CSS Board of Governors
Cc: Colleen Seifert <seifert@umich.edu>, Bruno Bara <bara@psych.unito.it>,
        Guy Boy <boy@onecert.fr>, berndt.brehmer@fhs.mil.se,
        Paul Brna <paul@cbl.leeds.ac.uk>,
        Pietro Carlo Cacciabue <pietro.cacciabue@jrc.it>,
        castel@ip.rm.cnr.it (Cristiano Castelfranchi),
        Axel Cleeremans <axcleer@ulb.ac.be>,
        Nils DahlbŠck  <nilda@ida.liu.se>,
        Bob French <rfrench@ulg.ac.be>,
        Jean-Michel.Hoc@univ-valenciennes.fr (Hoc Jean-Michel),
        Daniel Kayser <dk@lipn.univ-paris13.fr>,
        Boicho Kokinov <bkokinov@nbu.bg>, Daniel.Memmi@imag.fr,
        Maarten van Someren <maarten@swi.psy.uva.nl>,
        Keith Stenning <keith@cogsci.ed.ac.uk>,
        Rosemary.Stevenson@durham.ac.uk, Oliviero Stock <stock@irst.itc.it>,
        Willemien.Visser@inria.fr, Richard Young <r.m.young@herts.ac.uk>

To  Jeff Elman
    Chair, Board of Governors
    Cognitive Science Society


OUTLINE PROPOSAL FOR THE FORMATION OF A EUROPEAN CHAPTER OF THE COGNITIVE
SCIENCE SOCIETY

We, the undersigned, urge the Board of Governors to take steps to
investigate the formation of a European Chapter of the Cognitive Science
Society, the primary purpose of which would be to organise a Cognitive
Science Conference in Europe, in April every two years (starting 2003) or
possibly more frequently.

Before we begin to lay out the case, we should clarify the nature of this
current proposal.  What follows is not a detailed, fully fleshed-out
proposal for acceptance or rejection.  Rather, it is at most an outline
proposal, with many issues and details left open for future resolution in
the light of comments from, and by negotiation with, the Board.


The problem
-----------

Cognitive Science in Europe lacks a focus for regular, high-quality
meetings covering the range of cognitive science and serving as the forum
of choice for first presentation of new results.  Since 1995 (following a
highly altruistic gesture by the French national cognitive science society,
ARC) there have been three European Conferences on Cognitive Science
(ECCS): at St Malo, France in 1995; at Manchester, UK in 1997; and at
Siena, Italy in 1999.  However, although these meetings have been variously
interesting and partially successful in their own terms, they have not
fully met the criteria just described.  There will be no ECCS in 2001,
because of the Cognitive Science Society meeting in Edinburgh, and there
are doubts about any future ECCS meetings.

One aspect of the problem is that there is no single body which "owns" the
ECCS, and could thereby be in a position to provide guidance and
continuity.  Suggestions have certainly been put forward (indeed, at each
ECCS meeting) to form a new society, a putative European Society for
Cognitive Science.  However, doing so is unlikely to solve the problem.
Part of the difficulty is that there are already many European societies in
the area, rather than too few, but most of them have a narrow remit and a
small membership.  In addition, there are a number (3-4?) of national
cognitive science societies.  Some of them, at least, are thriving, but of
course they alone cannot provide the Europe-wide focus needed to solve the
problem.  Forming yet another society is unlikely to help: it will simply
add to the confusion rather than resolve it.


A possible solution
-------------------

One suggested solution would be for the Cognitive Science Society to enter
into negotiation with European cognitive scientists with the aim of forming
a "European Chapter", the primary (and perhaps only) purpose of which would
be to organise a series of Cognitive Science Conferences in Europe.  These
would probably start as being held every two years beginning in 2003,
probably in April.  But the frequency and timing could of course evolve.

We are far from definite about what we mean by a European "Chapter" of the
Society -- firming up the details of that is one of the things we think
should be done in collaboration with the Governing Board.  For example, it
is unclear whether or not the Chapter would be something to which
individual members belong.  (There are at least two models relevant here:
the "scientific society" model, which is a society with individual members;
and the "IJCAI" model, which has no individual members and consists of an
international committee -- in the case of IJCAI made up of "trustees" --
whose only responsibility is to organise conferences.)  However, certain
things are clear about the Chapter if it is to function as intended:

 * It is NOT a rival society in competition with the Cognitive
   Science Society itself.

 * It would need to be an internationally recognised legal entity,
   so that it can handle funds and carry them over from one
   conference to the next.

 * Although bureaucracy should be kept to a minimum, it would need
   sufficient structure and a workable constitution to enable it to
   perform its task of overseeing the conferences, and keeping
   itself running.

 * It should have a clear and mutually beneficial relationship to
   the Society.

The intention is that, by avoiding being yet another competing society, the
Chapter could act as a focus of interest across a wide spectrum of European
cognitive science.  The Chapter would of course benefit the Society too,
partly by encouraging membership, and partly by helping the Society to
become truly international.


What we are asking of the Governing Board
-----------------------------------------

We ask, firstly, that the Governing Board discuss this outline proposal
during their meeting in Philadelphia in August 2000.

Hopefully, the outcome will be neither a total rejection of the idea nor an
immediate commitment to form a European Chapter, but some kind of consensus
to explore the issue further.  In that case, we ask the Board to put in
place a mechanism to develop over the next year a fully worked-through
proposal to put before the Board again when it meets in Edinburgh in August
2001.  The choice of mechanism is of course up to the Board, but an obvious
suggestion is to appoint a sub-committee of the Board to work with a subset
of the signatories below to negotiate and develop such a proposal.

Finally, the Governing Board should be aware that this whole suggestion is
itself somewhat controversial within the European cognitive science
community.  The main concern of the objectors is that the Cognitive Science
Society is seen as being predominantly a North American organisation, so
that the formation of a European Chapter therefore risks being viewed as an
act of cultural domination.  (The response to that is perhaps that the CS
Society itself ought to be international, and that having the European
Chapter would strengthen that internationalism.)  In addition, some of the
national societies have legitimate concerns about the impact of a European
Chapter on their own activities.  Because of these concerns, it is
important to find a way to invite representatives from the national (and
perhaps other) societies to take part in any further discussions, even if
they have felt unable to sign this letter.

Despite these worries, we believe there is sufficient support in favour of
the proposal for it to be given serious consideration, and we believe the
success of the resulting conferences will win over many of the doubters.


(Signed:)

Bruno Bara, University of Torino (I)
Guy Boy, European Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Engineering,
   Toulouse (F)
Berndt Brehmer, Swedish National Defence College (S)
Paul Brna, University of Leeds (UK)
Pietro Carlo Cacciabue, EC Joint Research Centre, Ispra (I)
Cristiano Castelfranchi, CNR-Institute of Psychology, Rome &
   University of Siena (I)
Axel Cleeremans, UniversitŽ Libre de Bruxelles (B)
Nils DahlbŠck, Linkšping University (S)
Bob French, University of Liege (B)
Jean-Michel Hoc, CNRS - UniversitŽ de Valenciennes et
   du Hainaut-CambrŽsis (F)
Daniel Kayser, Institut GalilŽe, UniversitŽ Paris-Nord (F)
Boicho Kokinov, New Bulgarian University & Bulgarian Society
   of Cognitive Science (BG)
Daniel Memmi, IMAG, UniversitŽ Joseph Fourier, Grenoble (F)
Maarten van Someren, University of Amsterdam (NL)
Keith Stenning, University of Edinburgh (UK)
Rosemary Stevenson, University of Durham (UK)
Oliviero Stock, Centro per la Ricerca Scientifica e Tecnologia, Trento (I)
Willemien Visser, INRIA, Le Chesnay (F)
Richard M Young, University of Hertfordshire (UK)